Farghadani is currently serving 12 years and nine months in prison for drawing a cartoon.

The Courage in Cartooning award will be presented to Farghadani in absentia by CRNI founder and Executive Director Dr. Robert Russell in Columbus, Ohio, on September 5, 2015.

Farghadani was arrested in August 2014 after drawing a cartoon of Iranian parliamentarians with animal faces. Following her release four months later, she posted a video in Persian on youtube describing how prison guards had mistreated her physically.

In response to the charges against her, Farghadani wrote a letter to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which she said: "What you refer to as an 'insult to the representatives of parliament,' I deem to be artistic self-expression.“

As a result of that letter and her YouTube video, Farghadani was returned to prison in January, 2015. She was tried on May 19, 2015 at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Abolghasem Salavati. On May 28, 2015, she was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison.